Stamp Master for the Province.  The Governor at first refused to comply with a demand so sternly made.  But the haughty representative of kingly power had to yield before the power of an incensed people, who began to make preparations to set fire to his house.  The Governor then reluctantly produced Houston, who was seized by the people, carried to the market house, and there compelled to take a solemn oath never to perform the duties of his office.  After this he was released and conducted by a delighted crowd, to the Governor’s Palace.  The people gave three cheers and quietly dispersed.  Here we have recorded an act far more daring in its performance than that of the famous Tea Party of Boston, which has been celebrated by every writer of our national history, and

     “Pealed and chimed on every tongue of fame.”

It is an act of the sons of the “Old North State,” not committed on the crew of a vessel, so disguised as to escape identity; but on royalty itself, occupying a palace, and in open day, by men of well known person and reputation.

Another event of great historic importance occurred during the administration of Governor Tryon.  On the 16th of May, 1771, the battle of Alamance was fought.  It is here deemed unnecessary to enter into a detail of the circumstances leading to this unfortunate conflict.  Suffice it to say the Regulators, as they were called, suffered greatly by heavy exactions, by way of taxes, from the Governor to the lowest subordinate officer.  They rose to arms—­were beaten, but theirs was the first blood shed for freedom in the American colonies.  Many true patriots, who did not comprehend the magnitude of their grievances, fought against them.  But the principles of right and justice for which they contended could never die.  In less than four years, all the Colonies were found battling for the same principles, and borne along in the rushing tide of revolution!  The men on the seaboard of Carolina, with Cols.  Ashe and Waddell at their head, had nobly opposed the Stamp Act in 1765, and prevented its execution; and in their patriotic movements the people of Orange sustained them, and called them the “Sons of Liberty.”  Col.  Ashe, in 1766, had led the excited populace in Wilmington, against the wishes and even the hospitality of the governor.  The assembled patriots had thrown the Governor’s roasted ox, provided for a barbecue feast, untasted, into the river.  Now, these patriotic leaders are found marching with this very Governor to subdue the disciples of liberty in the west.  The eastern men looked for evils from across the waters, and were prepared to resist oppression on their shores before it should reach the soil of their State.  The western men were seeking redress for grievances that oppressed them at home, under the misrule of the officers of the province, evils scarcely known in the eastern counties, and misunderstood when reported there.  Had Ashe, and Waddell, and Caswell understood